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Posting message from the Essex list.
Sandie
list admin
X-Message: #2
Date: Sat, 20 Oct 2001 10:34:36 +1300
From: "Glenys Petry" <petrym(a)xtra.co.nz>
To: ESSEX-UK-L(a)rootsweb.com
Message-ID: <010d01c158e6$54f131e0$326036d2@z5h3j3>
Subject: 1881 surname spelling corrections
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
MIME-Version: 1.0
Hi List
I stumbled across this link, after using google.
http://www.apex.net.au/~tmj/cns-corr.htm
It seems to be list of corrections to the spelling of the names of people in
the UK 1881 census transcription and index.
It references surname NOONE transcribed as MOONS, in Surrey
Could SKS with the census please look up MOONS and send me the reference
please.
Many thanks
Glenys
Hope this site proves useful in some way
bright blessings
Sandie
List admin
http://www.infokey.com/hon/dna.htm
Your Surname, Your Genealogy and Your DNA
Your DNA is the blueprint of your creation.
Your genetic codes propelled you and yours to this place at this time
Is the DNA the secret of life, the driving force, that elusive key for which
man has beam searching since the beginning of time. Is it the fountain of
life itself? Have we found it right here, lurking on our own door step. It's
not out there amongst the twinkies in outer space, after all, it's deep down
inside every vibrant and mysterious fibre of our being. Locked away are the
secrets of history, the present, and quite probably the future. And
eventually, some day, the DNA will reveal all of its infinitely microscopic
and profound secrets.
Since everyone's DNA is different, it follows that we are
all different. Not alone, but different. Each ancestral generation, each
building block throughout history, has added its own two cents worth to this
great presence called you, and your DNA. Through the vast networks of your
ancestral history you've arrived. Now, we might achieve a deeper
understanding of the essence of life, and that's the way life is, and always
has been.
Flash! Here's the dramatic results of the most recent DNA
research. Two competing research teams, one American and one French,
discovered that 20% of millions of Jewish, Arab and other Middle East
neighbor races have a genetically flawed gene, Pyrin, which produces less
immunology to a fever known as Familial Mediterranean Fever.
Don't worry, you're not likely to walk into the boss and
say "I had FMF yesterday" but you might mistakenly say you had a heavy bout
of flu. Pyrin is a gene which regulates white cells. It is estimated this
genetic syndrome carries back 1000 years or more, maybe to the Pharoes. That
was the nub of this DNA research. Of great concern, doctors have been
treating these cases as normal, low to medium grade fever without much
success. They have been mystified by lack of clinical response to syptoms.
When and if diagnosed, a drug, Colchicine, is available. This ancient drug
comprises much of the mysticism of the Nile, the Pyramids, snake charmers and
communal hooka smoking. Emerging from the petals of the autumn Crocus, the
drug was discovered about 500 B.C, curiously, about the same time as the
mutation seems to have emerged. Up to about 30 years ago Colchicine had only
been useful in the treatment of gout. But don't mess with it, it's a
dangerous one. Check it out on the Internet, later.
So where does this leave us? Does this mean that if you're of
Anglo Saxon, Teutonic, Gaelic, Spanish. Italian, Greek, Chinese or Japanese
origin you could carry other hidden racially mutant genes, a unique
characteristic of your race? Other studies have suggested this. Who could
isolate such a racial database, and how? Have we sufficient data, for
instance, to make tests and differential diagnoses between say, the similar
physical profiles of Anglo Saxon, Saxon, Teutonic, Gallic and Norman races.
Here we encounter few reliable physical characteristic differentials such as
hair, skin tone, color, facial contour, or physical size. Not much which we
can 'scientifically' eyeball and identify. In this group there are few unique
social custom distinctions, comparable to that which the two research teams
might have had to work with. Yet, most certainly there must be hundreds of
other mutations anciently and secretly inbred in every race which, for
instance, not only sets the Armenian, the Turkish, the Jewish, and the Arab
race quite apart from their neighbours, the Afghans, Kurds, Iraqis, Iranians
or the Greeks or any other races who seem not to be included, but who may
have their own mutant inbred genes causing a multitude of hidden ailments,
serious or otherwise.
Or, reversing our whole field, if, after examining the
evidence presented, for instance, we discover that a mutant gene 3243 seems
to have a strong influence in previously untreatable degenerative, diabetic
neuropathy, an apparent aging condition which deteriorates the nervous
system, can we reverse our predilections by tracking to a predominant racial
strain, even a family history proclivity. rather than waiting for the
inevitable manifestation of the condition itself, thus avoiding irreversible
damage to an unsuspecting, otherwise normal human being? This type of
research is now going on, as we shall see later with Alzheimers.
Would the medical community be equipped to handle the
patient who walks in and announces there is a reasonable possibility that he
is among the 20-30-40% of his race who is susceptible to an ancient genetic
deficiency? What does that do to the organization of the medical profession
and their approach to pre-treatment of a condition or disease which has not
yet arrived on the scene? It's not exactly a universal vaccine that is
required because it doesn't apply to most of the population. Not even to most
of the isolated race. Yet, would it not seem reasonable, safer and less
costly to treat the mutation rather than the inevitable, sometimes fatal
condition? Or, we could the patient at least wear a life name-tag? Or,
whoever thought of a surname?
In certain ancient middle and far eastern races and
countries there is reasonable certainty of confining a racial study to
identifiable ghettoes, the social and geographic phenomena which groups
together religious and other unique racial customs, hence the ability of
these two research teams to isolate and conduct these two studies in the
first place, both arriving at the same conclusion. On the other hand, in the
general western European conglomerate there are diminished identifiable
racial distinctions. In what we may now call the generic Anglo race, how do
we tell the differences? How do we eyeball the Basque from the Spaniard, a
Scot from a Cornishman? Particularly after they've arrived in the vast
melting pot we call North America. This makes isolation of other racial
genetic inheritance even more complex and out of focus.
Unfortunately, the results of the American and French
research were relegated to the back pages of the media. Politically and
socially, we are still squabbling over the desperate needs of equality,
affirmative action and similar activist pressures related to the human social
success or otherwise. On the other hand, we are medically very different from
one another, as the geneticists have proved and continued to prove. Over 4000
human maladies have been proved to be hereditary, and perhaps that's only the
tip of an open umbrella. Our political postures surely cannot be allowed to
inhibit our survival. How do we learn to wear the two hats of this dichotomy
with equal force?
Where do we begin? If mutations can be 1000's of years
old, and, at the same time, only three or four generations old, or even be
interconnected, one with the other, the research cannot be limited to just
the recent genealogy of five or ten historic generations that Aunt Mamie put
onto her family tree, as the results of the two FMF test groups have just
concluded. Nor is the human body limited to just one single mutation.
Geneticists have proved genetic links in families many
centuries ago. The only continuity is your surname, the only genetic
connection, no matter which direction your search may take you. That is the
name of the game, the name of the gene. Game over.
For the last twenty or thirty years or so there's been a
groundswell, a profound, uneasy apprehension that it may be survival time,
for each of us, and our race. Fifty years ago the great fear was the nuclear
holocaust. Today its genetics. To reveal what the future holds you may need
to look over your shoulder to the past, and, in light of these recent
developments perhaps the far distant past of your race. The genetic code, the
DNA, now looms large in all our lives, and not just for our own well being,
but those who will follow. And, if your reprieve lies in history, you will
need signposts.
There isn't a universal central forum of genealogical
exchange. All except one, maybe. The WWW Internet. Like it or not, the
Internet is the only mass information media exchange which is not
pre-conditioned, pre-packaged, editorialized or screened. It is totally
accessible. It is free expression. But it is also very random, and equally
disorganized. It isn't necessarily controlled and prepared for your instant
consumption, either. It may also carry its own inaccuracies. Many don't like
or are afraid of Cyberspace for that very same reason. Nevertheless, it is a
spontaneous interactive dialogue, untreated, a forum that more truly reflects
public interest. On the other hand, it is not pristine. It allows frank,
sometimes too frank public expression which can be analyzed all the way down
to the grass roots of mankind. The search for identity and survival claims a
mega interest on the spawning www.internet.
Not surprisingly, then, emerging in this incessant
chatter of exchange is a hitherto dormant but now wildfire, explosion of
interest in our personal past, our ancestors, our own personal drive engines,
and our genetic profiles. This is a subject which gets very little attention
in the conventional media, mostly because nobody seems to know where it's
going and how it's going to get there. On the Internet, there are many
thousands of genealogical societies of all nationalities, millions of
individuals in a world wide quest for their past, family or clan association,
or just straight communi-cavorting with their own kind. Their uninhibited
driving force is variable and personal. Some are merely curious bystanders,
some hobbyists, some desperate pathologists. But, deep down, they're each
searching for all those elusive but common ancestors who had a hand in the
unique profile.
If all searches are based on surnames (and nothing else
exists) then some know-how is required. The purpose of this article and this
web site is an attempt to set straight some of the old wives tales relating
to the origin of surnames. Your name is the only key to the past, your birth
surname, no matter which way you go, no matter which method you use. And for
those unsure of their own identity, there are adoption web sites to help in
the quest.
Sure, you can change your surname, but it really doesn't
go away. Without it you're in deep, extra-terrestial space, without a
compass, not even an astrolabe. We will at least open a forum of thought
about a subject which has escaped the attention of modern analysis techniques
and derives its frequently absurd conclusions from a Victorian melting pot of
superficial conjecture, romance, snobbery, class distinction and
exaggeration, all embroiled into a variety of self-serving motives and needs.
Frequently these authors are our only popular and quick reference to the your
enquiries. They are a very lazy man's one-line reference, which is oft
repeated by word of mouth. Or, as some people do, you can simply create your
own history. 'I came from a bunch of sheep stealers or horse/cattle thieves'
is a very popular apology for one's ancestral past.
To digress for a moment. Does anybody know from what
source this popular "sheep stealers and horse thieves" derives? Well ....
after all the wisecracks have subsided .... there is a common source .... the
English/Scottish borders. This area included thousands of clans and families
who were a unique community commencing in the 11th century, having their own
laws (of which cattle thieving was common practice), their own society, their
own 'ruling body'. Collectively, the whole enclave, a buffer zone, was only
about 200,000 strong in the 13th century. It was never labelled as a kingdom,
but it might well have been in its own peculiar way. After 5 or 6 centuries
of infighting, in the 17th century this community was dispersed, it had
served it's rather vague purpose in the history of man. Their trails led to
Ireland, south into England proper, north into the Scottish highlands, to the
U.S and Canada. From Pennsylvania, they went westward through the Cumberland
Gap, then to the Wild West. Their brethren from Ireland joined them,
particularly after the famine. Some went to Australia. Banishment, slavery
and indenture was common practice in those days. In the U.S.A they were known
then as the Scotch/Irish and their strange dialects followed them. Their
names were mangled, chewed up, misspelled. Their descendents now number in
the tens, possibly hundreds of millions. Maybe you recognize basic names such
as Elliot, Armstrong, Nixon, Johnston, Stewart, Douglas, Scott, Maxwell and
thousands of others which still form the nucleus of our North American
society today. If you want to find a surname, you'd better know historically
where to look for its source. Those descending trails became widely
dispersed, branching as a river to its estuary. The Library of Congress has
many thousands of their genealogies.
Getting back .... We are embarking on an age of profound
understanding of the genetic impact on our lives. Since the 60's and 70's new
professions are emerging. Enter the professional geneticist, the medical
genealogist and others. The need to bring the past closer is becoming
abundantly clear, and most urgent. There are over 100,000 sites on the
Internet dealing with this kind of survival in one form or another.
Highlight. The recent rejection of the Anastasia claim to
be descended from the Nicholas, Czar of Russia was disproved by DNA
comparison with England's Prince Philip who has a provable connection to that
source. The pretender's DNA was not compatible to the Czar's but was traced
to a factory worker in Poland about the turn of this century. Even Bethoven
is being unearthed. From locks of his hair, (he died almost bald because so
many had taken this keepsake, a common locket practice at the time)
geneticists are trying to determine whether he really died of syphilis or
not. They are also trying to determine the cause of his deafness which may
have been the same neuropathy referred above. The next imponderable question
'Are all the Romanovs, Romanoffs, and Romanofs, Romanaks, Romanows, etc, both
royals and commoners alike, all related to the same basic DNA blueprint?' The
odds have to be at least 90% in their favour. If the odd's are so great with
a royal family, why not with not with a lesser family? Is this the common key
that made the Romanovs rulers of Russia, and other important positions in
life? Haemophelia also runs in this royal line. Aren't we lucky?
So far, in its short life, we've only thought of the DNA
as a physical, one dimensional relationship to our body and its physical
functions, and our unique DNA identification mostly for criminal detection
purposes. There may be much more depth to a particular heritable line than
just the one-dimensional superficial blueprint. How far do these unique
characteristics go back in time? How many did not arrive here at this time,
such as Neanderthal man, a whole slice of humanity which didn't survive. Why?
How many survived more than just adequately, they blossomed, exploded. Is
this trend traceable to family surnames? Modestly, many of us disclaim
aspirations to grandeur. Yet, fifty years ago, it was claimed, for instance,
there were two million living descendents of the Norman King Robert the
Bruce, a rather energetic and virile King of Scotland, who, is claimed, had
26 legitimate children and another 28 of the little tikes outside the
blanket, as the saying goes. His DNA must have been a procreative blueprint
driven by rocket thrusters, a real powerhouse. Is the drive to survive part
of the DNA, too? There have been many allegations of racial characteristics
prevailing in groups but I'm not going to touch that one with the proverbial
ten-footer.
Digressing again, I will, however, relate something which
you might find amusing. Getting back to those "horse theives", or the Unruly
or Reiver Clans as they we were sometimes known, each clan usually had a nick
name. Consider some of the following mostly Scottish Clan nick Names; The
sturdy Armstrongs: the jingling Jardines: the gentle Johnstones (and
Neilsons): the fiery MacIntoshes: the proud McNeills (and Seatons): the manly
Morrisons: the worthy Watsons: the pudding Somervilles: the saucy Scotts: the
huaghty Hamiltons (and Humes): the gay Gordons: the lucky Duffs: the trusty
Boyds: the wild McGraws (McGraths): the brave McDonalds: and so on. Or,
consider the English clan war cry: A Fenwick, a Fenwick, a Fenwick; 500
Fenwicks came over the lea. Are these to be considered not only racial, but
even family characteristics which prevail within those races?
There are now family groupings which take a very active
interest in their surname medical history. One such, on the Internet, report
their well organized re-unions more or less dedicated to investigating the
excessive intrusion into the line by Alzheimers disease. Thousands attend the
family re-unions. Every room in town is booked. The family have documented
the incidence of this condition from the late 19th century when they
emigrated to the U.S of A from the Ukraine. In their continuing
investigations they have even charted their ancestors passage from 16th
century Germany, then by a grant of lands in the 17th century from Katherine
the Great of Russia. The migrants from Germany settled in the Ukraine in two
small villages, Frank and Walter, near Odessa. The present inhabitants of
these villages also reveal the same gene, the same statistically excessive
trait. While there is much to be discovered by medical genealogists this is a
but one of thousands of examples of a growing apprehension about this DNA
connection and its historic trail of potent misery. Such cases have been
documented since the early part of this century, without even the benefit of
the DNA.
The DNA is not only a blueprint of the living, for crime
and other identification purposes, it is also a trail to the past, perhaps
our only legitimate trail. It is the profound heritage which makes us
different and can only be traced by the surname. It also seals the network
relationship of family ties. How meaningful this new tracing facility will
become depends on our future needs for survival, how fast can we get it up
and running as a viable and reliable tool. However, if we suggest that this
modern, 'instant snap shot' of the DNA, as we know it from the O.J trial,
etc., is a quick understanding of all the contributors from the past, we may
stagger into a minefield of complete misunderstanding. If it has been proved,
or at least indicated, the DNA is as effective and unique an historic tool as
it is for those presently living, it opens a new and formidable world of
research which only the modern computer can accommodate and support because
of the size of the complex networks and databases involved. Our database has
been in continual development since 1971 on one of the first microcomputers
ever produced. This immense work has been recognized as Research and
Development, allowable by Revenue Canada.
Digressing again .... The DNA can also be of immense
commercial value. Picture this. Let's say that the Norman race lives 4 years
longer than the average, or vice versa. It was proposed that applicants for
life insurance be given spit bags, to be mailed back in. If Norman (or any
other identifiable heritable racial DNA division) revealed an actuarial
longevity longer than average, then he might get a break on his premiums. Or
he/she might only identify a preferred (competetitively) customer, which is
the inevitable reverse side of this coin. Can you imagine, not only non
smokers but Normans maybe offered a break some some time in the future. This
is merely one of many commercial applications.
Nevertheless, to get at the truth of history we have to
question it, corroborate it as far as possible. There is much legend in
history. For instance, we could believe implicitly in King Arthur of Camelot,
the Round Table, and the Holy Grail fame, Charlemagne, the murderous Prince
John who cruelly victimized Robin Hood and the lovely Maid Marion, St.Patrick
and the snakes, McBeth, Dracula, Rasputin, Frankenstein and a thousand
others, not to mention the jingle bells of St. Nicholas. It's not that some
of these people didn't exist, its what we've created them to be. Perhaps,
hundreds of years from now, Snow White, Pinochio, Tom Sawyer, Marshall Dillon
(even Arness, together with film documentaries) will all become real people
in the minds of some. Every decade in history has been distorted by
self-serving reporters, the paparazzi, as we know them today. Romances have
been written, fantasies have flourished and each generation embellishes on
the previous one.
Hello Listers
>From the website
http://www.geocities.com/craig_thornber/htmlfiles/phealth.html
SOME KEY EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF PUBLIC HEALTH IN BRITAIN IN THE 19th CENTURY
· Sir John Pringle (1707-1782) a Scotsman, trained in Leyden and Edinburgh
published in 1752 Observations on the Diseases of the Army advocating good
ventilation of barrack-rooms and good sanitation. He also wrote on gaol fever
which we now know as typhus.
· John Ferriar (1761-1815), came from Jedburgh and studied in Edinburgh. He
moved to Manchester in 1785 and in 1790 was appointed physician and
Manchester Infirmary. He met Thomas Perciveal who had done an early survey of
the town with Thomas Henry, the apothecary. He became a sanitary reformer &
physician at Manchester Infirmary. He was influential in setting up a
voluntary Board of Health in 1796 which recommended whitewashing of houses
inside twice a year, wider streets, better location of privies, better
ventilation of houses, regulation of lodging houses, measures to reduce damp
in dwellings, public warm baths, street cleaning and removal of dung hills.
The board lacked the power and resources to carry through these ideas.
Ferriar published Medical Histories and Reflections, Warrington, 1792.
· Thomas Robert Malthus published Principles of Population in 1798.
· The population of Britain in 1701 was about 5.5 million. It was 9 million
by 1810 and grew to 18 million by 1851. In 1701 the population of London was
670,000.
· In 1824 the law prohibiting emigration of workmen was repealed. Between
1830 and 1839 about 668,000 emigrated and this rose to about 1,495,000
between 1840 and 1849. See also Irish Potato Famine below.
· Britain’s first cholera epidemic was 1831/2. The census of 1831 showed that
28% of the population was employed in agriculture. About half the population
lived in rural areas and 25% lived in towns of over 20,000.
· James Phillips Kay (1804-77) (later Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth) published
The Moral and Physical Conditions of the Working Classes Employed in the
Cotton Manufacture in Manchester in 1832.
· Birth, Marriage and Death Certificates were introduced in England and Wales
on 1 July 1837. These, together with the census returns, which gave details
of individuals from 1841, allowed the Registrar General to collect
comprehensive statistics about mortality rates, ages at death, and causes of
death.
· The Report on the Health of Towns (1840)
· The 1841 census showed that 45% of the population of England and Wales was
under the age of 20 and less than 7% was over 60.
· Edwin Chadwick (1800-1890) a poor law commissioner, wrote An Inquiry into
the Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population of Great Britain in 1842.
· Peel's Government set up the Buccleuch Commission in 1843 to verify
Chadwick's Report, to investigate the health of towns and make
recommendations for legislation. It endorsed Chadwick's work in the 1844
Report of the Commissioners Inquiring into the State of the Large Towns and
Populous Districts.
· Engels used Chadwick's work in his book Condition of the Working Class in
England (1844).
· The Irish Potato Famine from 1845 was caused by a fungal infection on
potato plants. The population of Ireland had been 7.8 million in 1831, rose
to 8.2 million by 1841 and fell to 6.6 million by 1851 as a result of
starvation and migration. Many Irish moved first to England before emigration
to North America.
· Major cholera epidemic in 1847/8
· The first Public Health Act in Britain came in 1848. It set up a General
Board of Health, made corporate boroughs responsible for drainage, water
supply and removal of nuisances, allowed non-corporate towns to set up local
Boards of health and required them to do so if the death rate was greater
than 23 per 1000 (1 in 43.5). The General Board of Health was abandoned in
1858 to be replaced by the Medical Department of the Privy Council where Dr.
John Simon was the Medical Officer and initially the sole employee.
· London operated independently of the Public Health Act, through its own Act
of 1848 to form the Metropolitan Commissioners of Sewers. At this time London
had a fragmented local government system involving 300 parishes, improvement
commissions and boards of trustees working under some 250 Local Acts.
· The 1851 census showed that about equal numbers of people lived in rural
and urban areas.
· By 1858 in Lancashire, only 400,000 of a total population of 2,500,000 were
served by a public health board. Some of the Local Boards which were formed
did not establish new services nor appoint Medical Officers of Health and
Borough Engineers.
· Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) appalled by her experiences during the
Crimean War of 1854-57 became a campaigner for better hospital design and
founded nursing as a profession.
· The Sanitary Act of 1866 introduced an element of compulsion for local
authorities to set up health boards. In 1868 the Royal Commission on Sanitary
Administration was set up as a result of pressure from the statistician
William Farr. The Local Government Act of 1871 and the Public Health Act of
1872 created a national network of rural and urban sanitary authorities.
· The Artisans’ and Labourers’ Dwelling Act known as the Torrens’ Housing
Act established two important principles. One was that the state had the will
and power to interfere with the rights of property to improve public health.
The other was the duty of the landlord to keep a property in good repair.
· The Public Health Act of 1875 made compulsory the appointment of a Medical
Officer of Health in every sanitary district of England and Wales. This act
consolidated the earlier legislation and dealt with food adulteration,
sewers, drainage and epidemics.
· Between 1815 and 1914 about 16.4 million emigrated from Britain. About 11
million went to the USA, 2.55 million to Canada, 2 million to Australia and
New Zealand, and 850,000 to South Africa. Of these 16.4 million about 4
million were from Ireland. (See Irish Potato Famine of 1840s)
· Housing of the Working Class Act was passed in 1890. The first Council
housing outside London was in 1909
· In 1906 the Liberal Government introduced school medical services and
advice for mothers on the nutrition of infants.
· The Ministry of Health was formed in 1919.
Bright Blessings
Sandie
List Admin
Redirecting message to the lists that I administer.
Although not appropriate to some subscribers to the lists it is to others.
Bright Blessings
Sandie
List Admin
From: charity.event(a)btopenworld.com (Steve)
To: UK-ROMANI-admin(a)rootsweb.com
UK-NORTHEAST 2001 - HISTORY FAIR & CHARITY DAY
SUNDERLAND A.F.C. (Stadium of Light) Saturday 20th October 2001
FAMILY HISTORY FAIR - 11.00am till 5.00pm
Various types of stalls normally available at the Family History Fairs
Including:
· Neighbouring Family History Societies
· Genealogy Software
· Family History Books, Charts, Maps,
· Local History Books, CD`s
· Microfiche Products
· Professional Researchers
Local History expert Ian Robinson from BBC Newcastle will be holding a live
phone in from our event between 12.00pm - 1.00pm. Tables cost £4.00 per table
- To book a table or for further details please contact Steve through our web
site at <A HREF="http://uk-northeast.com/">http://uk-northeast.com</A>. Admission is £2.00 and refreshments will be
available throughout the day.
CHILDREN'S FUN DAY - 11.00am till 5.00pm
WHY not bring the kids to our children's fun day. Bouncy castles, Mr Fireman
(specially adapted fire engine offering children's rides), stalls, balloons
and children's entertainer. Refreshments will be available.
MEMBERS "GET TOGETHER" - 5.00PM till 7.00pm
Get Together of NORTHEAST Mailing List Members and those who have family/
genealogy interest in the Northeast. - This event is open to all members of
INTERNET mailing lists within the Northeast of England. A way of getting to
know who is behind those e-mails, messages & postings that keep appearing on
the lists. Please feel free to bring along your family history
material/charts, files, paperwork, brickwalls queries etc. Refreshments will
be available throughout the day.
CHARITY EVENING - 7.00pm till 12.30am
Tickets cost £3.50 if reserved over our Internet site <A HREF="http://uk-northeast.com/">http://uk-northeast.com</A>
or £4.50 at the door. A pie & pea supper is included in the price of your
ticket along with a night of entertainment by Colin Summers (International
Cabaret Entertainer) and the sensational singing voice of Laura Adams. Other
events include an Auction & Raffle of items/goods kindly donated by TV & Pop
Stars, members of our Mailing List & Local Businesses etc. Guests for the
evening include the Deputy Mayor & Mayor-ess of Sunderland and Divisional
Office for Sunderland Fire Brigade, Colin Powell who will be giving a short
speech.
Also for those that are unable to visit our Charity Day, can still take part
by visiting our Charity Auction Web Site on:- <A HREF="http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~uknortheast/index.html">
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~uknortheast/index.html</A>
All money raised from the charity day will go to the "Widows & Orphans" fund
for the families of the fire fighters who lost their lives in the American
Disaster on 11th September. This event is being organised by UK-NORTHEAST
Mailing List and Genealogy Web Site. Further details can be obtained from our
web site at <A HREF="http://uk-northeast.com/">http://uk-northeast.com</A> or our charity page <A HREF="http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~uknortheast/index.html">
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~uknortheast/index.html</A>
from the website http://www.alicespringsnews.com.au/0445.html
I thought it might serve as an interesting comparison for a fifty year time
frame from country to country.
Mind you ... it continued even into my childhood. I grew up without a
fridge, or electricity. We never had hot water either, had to be carried by
kerosene tin from the fire heap in the back yard. I even remember when we
got our first bath ... before that it was an oval galvanised tub that hung on
the wall six days of the week.
Ohhhh those were the days ........
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A BUSH HOUSEWIFE - HALF A CENTURY AGO.
By ROSE COPPOCK
In outback Central Australia sixty years ago there was no electricity. That
meant no refrigeration in the home - which might have been only a bush shed
with an earthen floor, roofed and even walled with boughs and spinifex. A few
sheets of iron usually covered the dining table and stove. Stone houses ,
though surrounded by open verandas, would have been hot in summer, with a
fire in the wood-burning stove to heat flat irons, bake bread or cook a roast
dinner. Roast dinners and meals made of steak were luxuries, for fresh
(unsalted) meat would keep only for a few days after a beast was killed.
Weeks of boiled, dry salted beef would follow, accompanied by whatever
vegetables the lady of the house was able to grow - little enough during hot
weather. Then even a good supply of potatoes and onions brought in from the
South might perish. Patties made from cooked meat, stews and curries with
plenty of rice and dried peas disguised the taste of old, salty corned beef.
By day the raw beef was hung in a jute flour bag securely tied against flies.
A stray blowfly in the hessian-sided drip safe with the cooked food was not
unknown, and a maggot on a dinner plate was brushed away without too much
concern!
PUNGENT ANTS
Ants, with their pungent smell, were worse than flies, for they clung
determinedly to food, resisting all efforts to dislodge them. The safe, like
any other food cupboard, probably stood in pots of water, but the odd ant
might float across on a hair or a speck of dust. Tinned butter from South was
often rancid on arrival. A herd of goats solved the fresh milk problem:
boiled milk produced scalding cream. A separator enabled butter to be made.
Goat mutton was welcome on the menu, too. Making bread from hop yeast meant
setting the yeast first. When that had risen after about six hours a batch of
bread was mixed and set in a warm place to rise, usually overnight. Next day
the dough was kneaded, cut into loaves and set to rise again in greased tins
before baking. At this stage pieces of bread dough might be fried in fat to
be eaten hot with jam for breakfast. Dried fruit, sugar, fat and spice and to
bread dough made a fruit loaf called ³Brownie". Bread kept in air-tight
crocks in hot weather soon went soft and mushy - ³ropey". In a calico flour
bag it became dry, but remained edible for days. Jam was made from
pie-melons, rosellas, tomatoes and cape gooseberries, all cultivated in
Central Australian gardens. The fruit was washed and podded or, in the case
of melon, peeled and diced by knife on a wooden chopping board, the seeds
removed. Jam was boiled and stirred over a low fire for hours, in a large pot
on the stove. Jars were washed, dried and warmed in the oven before the hot
jam was ladled in. Cakes were made with fat rather than butter, and there was
no electric blender to mix them! Instead of ice cream there was rice pudding,
vermicelli or bread and butter custard if the chooks were laying well.
Gingernuts made without eggs were popular for smokos, though likely to crack
your teeth if you didn't dunk them in tea! There was often no water on tap at
outback places sixty years ago. When her husband was away a battler's wife
might have to draw water by windlass and bucket from the well. A station
manager's lady would have someone to draw and carry it to the house for her.
She would also have Aboriginal women to help with the housework. Additional
staff meant more cooking! There would be a little tin wurley or bough hut up
the flat, hiding a pit topped with a wooden seat: an old newspaper stuck in
the wall, a bucket of ashes and a tin to scatter them downwards. The nearest
thing to a bathroom was a bucket of water, a dish and a cake of home-made
soap on a packing case outside the kitchen door. If a woman wanted to swill
more than her face and hands she used a tin tub after dark - in front of the
kitchen stove perhaps, in winter. Men took a bucket of water, soap and towel
to the vegie patch at night. Every bit of beef or goat fat was rendered and
kept for making soap. VOLATILE A mixture of fat, water, caustic soda and
resin made a volatile brew that boiled over the moment the housewife's back
was turned. It demanded a low fire, a watchful eye and endless stirring until
it reached the right consistency, forming golden strings and droplets that
hung rather than fell from the raised copper stick. The mixture was left to
set overnight, then tipped out next day, solid, though soft, and cut into
blocks to become iron hard as time passed. Kerosene lamps partially lit the
main room (the kitchen) for a few hours after dark. Useless in wind, they
popped and flared, blackened their glasses and often went out. With no radio
or television, people read, played cards or the wind up gramophone, or sat
outdoors yarning of an evening. Without fly wire to keep insects away,
lamplight attracted every moth and flying ant in the vicinity. When
mosquitoes and flies were particularly annoying after rain a ³smoke bucket"
of smouldering cow dung gave some relief. On winter evenings the woman might
sew, mend or darn beside the kitchen stove. The treadle sewing machine
assembled clothes for most of the family. CORRESPONDENCE By day there were
correspondence lessons to teach the children: bottles of ink and pens with
scratchy nibs! The woman dispensed medicine, diagnosed and bandaged to the
best of her ability - mashed soap and sugar for boils and infected wounds,
condys crystals as antiseptic. Orphaned animals were hand reared; laundry was
boiled with scraped soap in the wood-fired copper, or scrubbed against
corrugated glass or metal wash boards. Mail days brought half a dozen copies
of the South Australian weekly farming paper, ³The Chronicle", all at once.
Imagine all those births, marriages and deaths columns to scan for news of
city friends and relatives! There were the Country Women's pages, and Madam
Wu ... There was no time for a Central Australian housewife to feel bored or
lonely. There were never enough hours in any woman's day. But today, life's a
lot easier!
Hello listers
at this address you will find a series of WebRings, one being for those
people with websites for family history, these web rings are not for
genealogical resources.
WebRings provide a central place where all websites pertaining to its topic
are located.
I look forward to those people who have homepages link their sites to the
WebRing.
http://hometown.aol.com/romniroser/myhomepage/newsletter.html
Other WebRings are listed below.
Bright Blessings in peace and light
sandie
List Admin
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WebRings I maintain:
AUSTRALIAN FAMILY HISTORY WebRing
BARRETT's IN ENGLAND WebRing
WESTERN AUSTRALIAN CONVICT's WebRing
AUSTRALIAN SMITH's WebRing
AUSTIN's IN ENGLAND WebRing
YOUNG's IN ENGLAND WebRing
ESSEX FAMILIES IN ENGLAND WebRing
FAMILIES IN CAMBRIDGESHIRE ENGLAND WebRing
ROMANI FAMILIES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM WebRing
Navigation bars to link to these WebRings are listed at:
http://hometown.aol.com/romniroser/myhomepage/newsletter.html
Look for further WebRings coming soon....
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